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The ‘Netflix for Pirates’ explains why it will never be taken offline again

Published Nov 6th, 2014 3:30PM EST
Popcorn Time Beta 5.0 Download
Image: Popcorn Time

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Popular torrent streaming Popcorn Time version Time4Popcorn — also informally known as the “Netflix for pirates” — lets users instantly watch pirated movies and TV shows on a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. But the team of developers is currently rebounding from an attack from EURid, which suspended Time4popcorn.eu last month following a legal investigation into the streaming app. However, Popcorn Time says it’s learned from this experience and has vowed to make itself impossible to shut down again in the future.

FROM EARLIER: ‘Netflix for pirates’ app Popcorn Time finally hits the iPhone and iPad

After Time4popcorn.eu was suspended, the app lost all its traffic, and the team moved it to popcorn-time.se before planning more changes for the future and releasing a Beta 5.0 version.

“Beta 5.0 is our answer to EURid’s removal of our domain and all the other actions they’ve taken (and are still taking) against us in order to sabotage our project,” the team told BGR in a statement. “Within thre weeks since the attack we grew from 0 installs of new users a day, to 25,0000 installs a day!”

“It is impressive, but it’s not even close to the numbers we had before EURid removed our domain and basically crashed us… for a moment. EURid tried to take us down but instead of doing so, they just opened our eyes and made us better and wiser. We built beta 5.0 so that no one will be able to take it down,” the team added.

“Popcorn Time from now on will keep on working as usual even if our domain gets removed, and in the future even the necessary data for Popcorn Time will be transferred purely via Peer2Peer (the infrastructure for this is already in the beta 5.0).”

Beta 5.0 brings a brand new user interface “with a smooth, slick feeling that just makes you want to watch a movie,” touchscreen support, anime section and cartoons, and will soon enable torrent seeding, which means users will also help sharing files, rather than just download them.

In the future, the team plans to further improve Popcorn Time security — currently the service offers VPN support to anonymize traffic — in order to protect users. Furthermore, the team hinted that future versions of the app will let users download anonymously any torrent, on top of streaming video torrents.

As always with Popcorn Time streaming, you should know that you might be breaking the law by using this, and any other torrent product, so make sure you understand exactly what the app does, and how it works.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.